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So Long, Quidditch
Feb. 12th, 2019 01:37 pmI first became aware of quidditch - the real version - in 2011. If you go back and look at the Western Cup II page, you can find a snarky post from me there. There wasn't quidditch anywhere particularly near me at the time, but I flew out to the Bay Area for a few days that summer for water balloon quidditch and karaoke with the Skrewts. 2010-12 was a rough period in my life, but one thing that really helped was knowing I had somewhere to come home to if I gave up on the whole law school thing.
So I followed World Cup V as best I could, despite the failure of both the livestream and the Marauder's App, and Western Cup III. And then in the summer of 2012 I moved back to California. That was the start of my first season playing quidditch.
The Skrewts that season had a bunch of really great moments, including our first tournament win and first non-smashable trophies. But my first big "holy shit this is legit" moment was probably Western Cup IV. There were banners! And lined fields! And fancy ceremonies! And our first real jerseys!
At Western Cup IV we became the first team to competitively qualify for World Cup in the West, if just by a few minutes. I also experienced my first official overtime loss in our semifinal against the Lost Boys, although it would not be the last by far. And it was the first tournament where I stepped onto the field in zebra stripes.
We returned to Maidu Park for Western Cup VI, two years later. That year we qualified by shutting out NAU, avenging our loss to them at World Cup VI. I was a bit stressed going into the game (and it stayed as a scoreless tie for a while), but it ended up being a lot less crazy than our previous year's qualification. It was my second Western Cup as an IQA/USQ head referee and a league gameplay coordinator.
Three more years, three more qualifications, lots more quidditch, even more moments I'll never forget. (Our opening wins of 2015 and our crazy OT win against USC to keep qualification alive stand out, as does doing just well enough to make it into the US Cup 10 bracket and finally beating UCLA last year.) I've made it to every American region except for the new Midwest to either play or officiate in some capacity, and I've been honored to be an official on many big games across the country. And as a gameplay coordinator, I feel like I've been a part of many improvements to the competitive qualities of American quidditch.
And of course, to use a cliche, the real winning was the friends I mad along the way. I've met a lot of great people through this sport, and the biggest thing I've missed this season is not seeing quite a few of you as much as I'd like.
But there comes a time when it's enough. I'm not as young as I once was, and while I've managed to avoid major injuries, I don't trust that luck to hold out forever. And I wanted to have some more guilt-free weekends to myself or to other hobbies and not be at practice almost every non-summer weekend.
I decided I'd take summer 2018 to think about it and if I didn't change my mind, I'd let people know. I don't like using the word "retirement" (there are no professional quidditch players), and I didn't want to rule out maybe hopping in on a trial membership if the Skrewts needed players for a random local tournament one weekend. But at the end of the summer I felt no urge to reconsider my decision.
This year, Western Cup returned to Maidu Park. It's the first time I've ever been to a Western Cup as a non-player. It felt really, really weird. I've been to several out-of-region tournaments as a non-playing official, but Western Cup is home. And not being there with my team, going for my seventh (and the Skrewts' eighth) nationals and maybe picking up some shiny things on the way? Yeah. I had a lot of feelings this weekend.
Western Cup IV is not quite where I started, and Western Cup X is not quite where I'll end it. But the symmetry is close enough that I thought that Pitch 1, where we played all of our pool play games in 2013 and our qualification game in 2015, was a good place to say goodbye. So it's time to make official something I've been considering for a few months.
Effective at 10:01pm PDT on 14 April 2019, I'll be done with quidditch, except as a spectator and as a friend. It's been a good journey. Don't be strangers.
So I followed World Cup V as best I could, despite the failure of both the livestream and the Marauder's App, and Western Cup III. And then in the summer of 2012 I moved back to California. That was the start of my first season playing quidditch.
The Skrewts that season had a bunch of really great moments, including our first tournament win and first non-smashable trophies. But my first big "holy shit this is legit" moment was probably Western Cup IV. There were banners! And lined fields! And fancy ceremonies! And our first real jerseys!
At Western Cup IV we became the first team to competitively qualify for World Cup in the West, if just by a few minutes. I also experienced my first official overtime loss in our semifinal against the Lost Boys, although it would not be the last by far. And it was the first tournament where I stepped onto the field in zebra stripes.
We returned to Maidu Park for Western Cup VI, two years later. That year we qualified by shutting out NAU, avenging our loss to them at World Cup VI. I was a bit stressed going into the game (and it stayed as a scoreless tie for a while), but it ended up being a lot less crazy than our previous year's qualification. It was my second Western Cup as an IQA/USQ head referee and a league gameplay coordinator.
Three more years, three more qualifications, lots more quidditch, even more moments I'll never forget. (Our opening wins of 2015 and our crazy OT win against USC to keep qualification alive stand out, as does doing just well enough to make it into the US Cup 10 bracket and finally beating UCLA last year.) I've made it to every American region except for the new Midwest to either play or officiate in some capacity, and I've been honored to be an official on many big games across the country. And as a gameplay coordinator, I feel like I've been a part of many improvements to the competitive qualities of American quidditch.
And of course, to use a cliche, the real winning was the friends I mad along the way. I've met a lot of great people through this sport, and the biggest thing I've missed this season is not seeing quite a few of you as much as I'd like.
But there comes a time when it's enough. I'm not as young as I once was, and while I've managed to avoid major injuries, I don't trust that luck to hold out forever. And I wanted to have some more guilt-free weekends to myself or to other hobbies and not be at practice almost every non-summer weekend.
I decided I'd take summer 2018 to think about it and if I didn't change my mind, I'd let people know. I don't like using the word "retirement" (there are no professional quidditch players), and I didn't want to rule out maybe hopping in on a trial membership if the Skrewts needed players for a random local tournament one weekend. But at the end of the summer I felt no urge to reconsider my decision.
This year, Western Cup returned to Maidu Park. It's the first time I've ever been to a Western Cup as a non-player. It felt really, really weird. I've been to several out-of-region tournaments as a non-playing official, but Western Cup is home. And not being there with my team, going for my seventh (and the Skrewts' eighth) nationals and maybe picking up some shiny things on the way? Yeah. I had a lot of feelings this weekend.
Western Cup IV is not quite where I started, and Western Cup X is not quite where I'll end it. But the symmetry is close enough that I thought that Pitch 1, where we played all of our pool play games in 2013 and our qualification game in 2015, was a good place to say goodbye. So it's time to make official something I've been considering for a few months.
Effective at 10:01pm PDT on 14 April 2019, I'll be done with quidditch, except as a spectator and as a friend. It's been a good journey. Don't be strangers.
